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Each time an attempt was made by the city authorities in Accra to decongest the city and free the roads and pedestrian lanes of human traffic, people viewed such exercises with some skepticism as to how far the exercise could travel. This doubt emanates from the fact that over the years the general public questions the commitment and capability of the city authorities to execute such ventures and even sustain them. Since Adam, a lot of attempts have been made to maintain some level of sanity on the streets of Accra but each time things seem to be moving in the right direction the whole exercise gets derailed. Many a time, the leadership of the AMA which usually initiated those facelifts appeared jittery because of the political ramifications that always characterised such ventures. It is on record that the AMA has implemented many so-called �decongestion� exercises in the last decade or so to no avail. But every time, after a period of about one month, the streets of Accra look cleaner and quieter with the hawkers, illegal structures and market traders removed. But, such is the poor enforcement of project plans by the AMA and the various authorities, that these elements (hawkers and illegal structures) reappear in a short space of time! According to statistics from the Reader�s Digest Library of Modern Knowledge, picked from the Legon Observer, Accra had a population of about 780,000 in 1978, while 1,658,937 people lived in Accra metropolis in 2000; that figure should triple by now. Though the idea of decongestion is well founded and decongestion itself is not impossible to do, sustainable decongestion of the Central Business Area is proving politically, technologically, socio-culturally and logistically challenging. It is also on record that before the Convention People�s Party (CPP) came to power in 1957, the British had laid out a beautification plan for the city, which clearly demarcated the commercial and business districts, as well as the recreational and residential districts. The major plank of the British plan included public parks and green zones. Nkrumah decided to �tear up� the script and introduced the ideas of monuments and concrete public spaces such as independence square etc. Hence the British idea was never fully implemented. But, the problem has been that successive governments have failed to implement either the colonial plan or the Nkrumah plan or even a combination of the two. We were all living witnesses to the pledge by the current Accra Mayor, Mr. Alfred Okoe Vanderpuiye, that he was determined to make Accra the showpiece of the sub-region. Yes, Mr. Vanderpuiye started so many things to make Accra beautiful and the residents law-abiding. He started the demolition of buildings on watercourses, which have been blamed for the perennial floods in the city; he abolished the shift system, which, according to the Education Ministry, has led to congestion in most of the Accra schools; he disbanded the use of pit latrines and the enforcement continues; he removed street hawkers, who plied their trade on street pavements, and most recently he prohibited street hawking on some of the principal streets of the city. Initially, the exercise seemed to be heading for total compliance, however after a few weeks of adherence to the order, the hawkers have started returning to the streets. No official explanations have been offered for this but it is very discouraging that an exercise which was applauded by most residents of the city is beginning to show signs of failure. Well, I do not believe the city authorities can convince any of us that they are unaware of developments regarding the return of the street hawkers.